


Christmas Traditions

by TheOnlyOrigamiDinosaurLeft



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Family, Gen, M/M, Team as Family, Tissue Warning, set post series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-24 10:33:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8368975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOnlyOrigamiDinosaurLeft/pseuds/TheOnlyOrigamiDinosaurLeft
Summary: Its Christmas 2027, Anwen is 17 years old and Gwen likes to say she is 42. Jack shows up like he always does, with handfuls of gifts for the family of 3. They sit and they dine just like they have since Jack first showed up for Christmas. its a time to reflect on past losses, past loves and of course what the future holds. Gwen misses her old life, but she misses her old team more.pretty sad I won't lie, I got kinda emotional writing this one. I just love the idea of Jack making sure to show up for Christmas each year so he can see Gwen, the only thing he has left to remind him of his old team, of Ianto.There is a lot of dialogue but stick with it. Please enjoy





	

Gwen set the last placemat at the end of the table, she was hopeful he would be on time. Rhys Williams, her wonderful husband popped his head out of the doorway to the kitchen.

“Hey there lovely. Anwen says she’ll be down in 5, I told her to hurry up or no turkey. Fair?”

Gwen laughed and walked over, kissing him softly on the cheek.

“Of course, how long until dinner?”

“20 minutes I should say.” Gwen looked worried. “He’ll be here love, don’t worry.”

Anwen’s heavy footsteps clattered down the stairs, he jumped from the 3rd one up and landed square in front of her mother.

“A’right Mam, Happy Christmas.”

Anwen was every bit as beautiful as her mother; she had long dark hair that came in waves across her shoulders, striking green eyes and a thick south wales accent that was 100% her father. She had just turned 17 and despite her mother’s tendencies for pure danger, Anwen had led a quiet life, a safe one, tucked away in a house on the coast line.

“Happy Christmas Darling,” Gwen kissed her daughter on the cheek and gave her a one handed hug.

“What time is Uncle Jack getting here?”

Gwen sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

“Who knows? Soon I hope, or he will miss strictly.”

Anwen laughed and happily trotted into the kitchen to help her Dad. Suddenly there was a harsh knock on the door and Gwen practically ran to open it. The man outside looked as young and gorgeous as ever. His brown hair flopped carelessly over his forehead and his hands were carrying large bags of gifts.

“Happy Christmas Gwen,”

She ushered him inside where he dumped his bags so he could envelop her in a massive hug.

“Someone’s getting old,” he said laughing.

“And someone else is not. How are you?”

Jack pulled back from the hug and looked at his friend.

“I’m okay. Really, I am.”

Anwen came running out of the kitchen and leapt into Jack’s arms.

“Hiya kiddo!” Jack said with a massive laugh, wrapping his arms around the slim girl.

“Merry Christmas Jack!”

“And to you. And I believe someone has just turned 17 and im a terrible uncle who didn’t come for her birthday.” He reached into the closest bag and pulled out a small wrapped gift. He kissed her head as he handed it to her. “Happy Birthday kid,”

Rhys appeared out of the kitchen wearing a ‘Dad’s in the kitchen, Mam’s saving the world’ apron that Jack had got them when Anwen was 11. He shook Jack’s hand.

“Alright mate! Happy Christmas!”

“You too Rhys, How’s the bird?”

“Solid 10/10 mate, she’s cooking nicely!”

Rhys led Jack into the kitchen where he helped plate up and serve the meal. At the table, Gwen was chatting away to Anwen while Rhys spoke quietly to Jack.

“So, how’s things back in Cardiff?”

Jack nodded, sipping his wine.

“Not bad, it’s a little dull for the minute. The rift has only opened a fraction since…” Jack didn’t say-since the house of the dead. It still hurt too much. “Anyway, it’s nothing like it used to be. We barely get an incident per week, but it’s still good to have us monitoring it.”

Rhys paused his reply to swallow around a mouthful of potato.

“Who’ve you got on the team now?”

“Let me think, Rex comes and goes, more freelance I guess. Which is fair I think. Lois works on the computers. Obviously Mickey heads up field operations and we have Martha in medical. They came back to us in January after a spot more freelancing. I think they’re happy helping when they can, but they’ve been in and out since Martha left UNIT. We have a few people you don’t know, lower positions and that kind of thing.” Jack took a sip of wine. “We have a good team on the archives now. Since the explosion it’s been their job to find and recover all that lost stuff. They’ve done an amazing job containing it all.”

Rhys nodded.

“Im glad it’s going well. Sounds a lot tamer than it used to be.” Jack laughed at that. “She misses it.” He was talking about Gwen. “She doesn’t miss the… y’know.” Jack did know. “But the excitement, the adrenaline. She’s a junkie.”

Jack laughed again and swallowed a piece of meat.

“She’ll be okay, get her to come visit us someday. You too. Its lonely working with all these Londoners.”

Rhys smiled.

“We might just do that. And you, do you stay full time now?”

“For the most part,” Jack sighed. “It’s tough. The hub looks great now, it’s been rebuilt and everything is back to normal, accept…” Jack looked at Gwen, who glanced up at him and smiled. “It’s just not the same. I miss them. All of them, all the time. I’ve got a great team there, but it’s not my team. You understand?”

Rhys nodded sadly.

“I do. I miss them-miss him-too.”

Jack’s eyes glazed over with tears, which he blinked away. The dinner was lovely, and so were the presents after. They sat around the fire watching the King’s speech and grinning. William certainly suited the position of king. Jack always laughed saying that he remembered when Wills and Harry were just little boys, running around while he had tea with Liz. He missed the queen, she was a lot easier to talk to.

After, at around 9pm, Anwen and Rhys went for their annual Christmas walk along the shore line, while Jack and Gwen sat themselves in front of the fire with large glasses of whiskey. The Christmas walk had started when Anwen was 8, also the first Christmas Jack had showed up holding gifts with tears streaming down his face. Rhys had suggested that he and Anwen should go on a walk to give Gwen and Jack some space to talk. And every year they had kept it up.

Gwen sipped her drink and set it on the table next to them.

“So…”

“So.”

“Christmas 2027… you feel old yet?”

Jack laughed.

“I am old.”

“You look wonderful for a man going on 250.”

“Excuse me, I’m well over 2000 years old.”

“Only if you count the time…”

“I do could that time. I remember it. So it counts.”

Gwen was quiet, watching the fire dance in front of them.

“Are you really okay?” She asked quietly. “Cus I know that every Christmas I feel like all I want to do is cry. I want to curl up into a small ball and cry. Because I miss them and I think about those Christmas’s we had together.”

Jack felt his throat tighten. He forced a smile.

“I understand Gwen, I do. You remember the Christmas that Tosh put up all that bunting and Owen kept walking into it and nearly falling over?”

Gwen nodded and laughed.

“And the year Ianto got that new coffee machine and he forced us all to try the about 11 different coffees he could make.”

“I didn’t sleep for about a week after that.”

“Neither, Rhys was so mad.”

They both laughed hard, then fell silent.

“You remember the year after Tosh and Owen?” Gwen nodded. “Ianto stayed up all night. We were at his flat and I walked into the living room at like 3am to find him sat in his pants wrapping a collection of gifts. I sat down next to him and asked him why he was up.”

Gwen was crying now.

“What did he say?”

“He said ‘Gwen left these under the tree at the hub, but the wrapping was horrendous. So I’ve re-done it so Rhys doesn’t divorce her.’”

Gwen laughed, wiping away her tears.

“I always wondered why they looked so good the next day when I picked them up. I thought I must have just been better at it than I thought.”

Jack chuckled sadly and took a gulp of his drink.

“I couldn’t get him to come back to bed, so we just sat, him wrapping and me… well I just watched him.” Gwen was looking at Jack. “I always wanted to do a proper Christmas with him. But the one after that… that was our last one.”

Gwen thought back to that last Christmas.

“We spent all of the Christmas week working. Weevils, meteors, space junk, minor invasions… I remember.”

“I told him we would do it right the next year, dinner and presents and everything… well, you know how that went.”

Gwen did remember. Jack had been gone by that Christmas, off around the world, trying to forget. Gwen herself had spent the entire of that day sobbing with Rhys. They were in a small flat just outside of Cardiff, curled up in bed eating a turkey pie Rhys has found for half price at Co-op. she hadn’t stopped crying all day, all night and well into the next morning. It had been the worst Christmas she had ever experienced.

“You know, Anwen used to ask who Ianto was. I have those pictures in my room, of all of us. And a few notes he used to leave me. Mementos…. She used to see them and ask who the cute man in the suit was.” She and Jack both laughed. “He sure was cute.”

“He looked good in a suit.”

They caught each other’s eyes and took each other’s hands, smiling sadly. Gwen raised her glass in toast.

“To Owen, Tosh, and Ianto. Our team. Merry Christmas.”

Jack mirrored her actions, a few tears escaping his eyes.

“Merry Christmas…”


End file.
